Upcoming and Past Events

Matt Shannon’s presentation will focus on deploying effective creative writing assignments in late junior and early senior public high school classes does not appear to have any foundation in MEXT curricula; this session will address some steps taken to allow creative student responses while staying within the scope of existing compositional and argumentative forms for thus age group.Asako Katou’s presentation focuses on high school students’ and teachers’ classroom practices; attitudes toward English, motivation, activities and topics involved under the current curriculum. Also there is a focus on their concerns about the upcoming curriculum, which makes us think outside the box when we try to find the solution to the problems.Cecilia Smith will discuss how historical movies can help achieve many outcomes including: providing an effective means of introducing higher level vocabulary; developing critical thinking; developing written and spoken English as well as research skills; opening students to new ideas and providing a background to studying contemporary issues.Kyoko Tomuro This presentation shows the process in which TOEIC Part 1 test takers read pictures and choose one out of four statements they hear on audio tape. Three phases were discovered in the process: (1) evaluating pictures, (2) considering the candidate statements during listening intervals, and (3) eliminating other possible answers and selecting one from the choices. Ten mutually interwoven factors were observed and were analyzed. When test takers made the final decision, they were often influenced by familiar words. The results of an additional test indicated sentences rather than keywords (the content words) were necessary to construct meanings. When the stories in both visual literacy and listening (language) matched, learners were able to understand the meaning.Delano Cannegieter will present tips and strategies for ‘tricking’ students into liking English more by helping them to get ready for the ‘real world.’